Sagrada Familia

So, in the race for “Chris’s favorite basilica,” Sagrada Familia and St. Peter’s have always been neck-and-neck. St. Peter’s interior and decorations pretty much blow any other church on earth out of the water (when your the headquarters of the Catholic Church for several hundred years, you tend to collect some swag), but I’ve always loved the exterior of Sagrada Familia so much more.

In a nutshell, Sagrada Familia has the typical cross-shaped layout of a basilica, with the Apse occupying the top section of the cross. The other three arms are tipped with three facades, representing three aspects of Christianity: the Nativity, the Passion, and the Glory (i.e. believers, faith, and the Holy Trinity). The Passion and Nativity Facades are mostly done, but the Glory Façade is just getting started. Currently, it just consists of the door pictured below, with the Lord’s Prayer in Catalan in the center, and the phrase “Give us this day our daily bread” in most of the world’s languages.

The Nativity Façade tells scenes fromthe story of Christ’s birth, including the actual Nativity, the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, and Jesus teaching as a child in the temple. Modernisme (the architectural movement Gaudi was a member of) focuses a lot on nature, plants, and animals, and it really shows here. This façade is coated in little nubbly bits representing animals, fruit, and flowers surrounding the Biblical scenes. The main entrance through this façade is supported by pillars that end in two large turtles, whose long-lives represent the eternal nature of God’s power. Oh, and true to Barcelona’s orientation “La montans, y la mar” (the mountains and the sea), the turtles represent the city’s surroundings. The turtle on the sea-side of the entrance is a sea turtle, and the turtle on the mountain-side is a mountain tortoise. This imagery also extends to the exterior of the apse, which is covered in small animals “fleeing in awe of the Holy Spirit inside.”

The Passion Façade is, obviously, much more stark and somber, and features the other main aspect of Modernisme: geometry. The entire façade is harsh angles and odd curves, and gives everything a kind of shocked and inhuman feeling. The scenes here reflect the scenes of the Passion (you can see most of them HERE), and the shapes of characters and imagery are all meant to be simplistic and sad. My personal favorite part was the statue of the Ascension, which I forgot to snap a photo of. It’s a brass statue that weighs over 4 TONS, and is sitting on a stone slab waaaaaay up in the air. I also liked the magic square near the scene of Judas’ betrayal (where there are over 300 ways to combine the numbers and get 33, Jesus’ age at death), and the ripping of the sheet in the Temple, where you can see the light and colors of God shining through.

When I was there last, they were just finishing up the roof, and had maybe four stained glass windows in place. Now, the interior structure is mostly complete, and the decorations are nearly there too. But, now that Sagrada Familia’s interior is nearing completion, I have to say, it’s pulled ahead in a massive way. The church is absolutely STUNNING inside. I was blown away, and Sean’s reaction was, “It totally blew away my expectations, which were pretty high to begin with after hearing you talk about it.”

The columns are all made using a complex geometric formula that has them start as six-sided ones at the base, then slowly “grow” more and more sides as they reach the top. Once they reach the top, they split into more columns to simulate tree trunks supporting the ceiling, which is designed to look like the canopy of a forest. This is supposed to simultaneously create a sense of wonder at the scale of the church, while also making it feel enclosed, private, and personal (goals which, oddly enough, it achieves). When the sun sets, lights in the spaces between the “leaves” turn on, simulating seeing stars peeking through.

Light and color in the church are AMAZING as well. The altar and apse are surrounded by gold, stained glass, and windows, so it’s so full of color, you don’t really know how to process it all. The windows to the east (the Nativity façade) are blue and green, and the windows to the west (the Passion façade) are oranges and reds, so the sunrise simulates spring, water, and life, and the sunset simulates autumn.

The area behind the altar (where little chapels normally go) was also done differently. Rather than having chapels and shrines to various saints (which invariably get gated off to keep tourists out), it’s just a quiet place where people can go, sit, pray, and think (the original purpose of the chapels).

So yes, overall, Sagrada Familia is a very different church from most of the cathedrals and basilicas you’ll find in Europe. It might not have the gold and marble of St. Peter’s, but it more than makes up for that in character, creativity, and the thought that went into all the details. Even things that you wouldn’t think of (like the decorations around windows you can only see from the towers, the use of spring fruits on the Nativity towers and autumn fruits on the Passion towers) have a reason behind them.

All in all, it’s an absolutely fantastic church, and worth the visit to Barcelona all on its own. I see at least one more trip to Barca in my future, somewhere on the order of 2026-2028, when it’s supposed to be completed.

War of the French Artists

So apparently artists in Provence and Paris dislike each other. Walked past a woman selling some very nice, surprisingly cheap watercolors today and asked if they were originals or prints.

She got a little huffy and said, "Monsieur, these are ALL originals. We are NOT like those "artists" in Montmartre."

(Imagine it in a thick French accent to get the full effect)

Provence Schedule

So, schedule of Provence:

Yesterday (5/29): Train to Avignon

Today (5/30): Planned and booked tours, trains, and buses, went on a cheesy tour, saw the Bridge, walked along the river, got dinner

Tomorrow (5/31): More of Avignon; papal palace and wandering

Friday (6/1): Buses to and from St. Remy in Provence

Saturday (6/2): Taking a guided tour of Nimes, Uzes, and Pont du Gard all day

Sunday (6/3): Train to and from Arles 

Monday (6/4): Leaving Avignon for Nice/Monaco

Trip to Avignon

So, the trip to Avignon was…interesting.

Not bad interesting. Actually quite dull. But a little different.

Basically, there’s no direct line to Avignon from Barcelona. This is mostly due to the fact that Spanish rail lines use a different gauge (distance between rails) on their track than just about everybody else. So, anyone going into or out of Spain by rail has to change to a different line near the border. Most people going from Barcelona to Avignon change at either Montpellier (on the French side) or Figueres (on the Spanish side). These are the ‘official’ Eurail routes.

Not so with Sean and I. When we went to the train station in Barcelona, we realized two things. 1) Eurail’s official routes are not at all comprehensive and 2) People in Barcelona reaaaallly don’t like speaking English. We talked with 4 different train officials, two of whom knew a bit of English, but didn’t speak it to us, one of whom actually spoke to us in English, and one who didn’t speak English, but was a master of Spanglish. 

Anyway, long story short, after about 2 hours at the train station, we figured out what we were doing.

Interestingly enough, though, the officials had pointed us to an unofficial route. Instead of one of the other two towns, this route took us through Cerbere, France. We were happy, ‘cause it took only local train routes, which meant that we didn’t have to pay a reservation fee (which eurailers have to do when riding long distance or high speed trains).

The wait at the station the day of was fun. We got there plenty early, and were drinking coffee in the waiting area when an Asian woman runs up to us, drops two suitcases and a backpack, asks us to watch it, then scurries off with two other bags.

Enter Ellen, another of those characters you only meet once in a long while.

Ellen came back a few minutes later, and we realized the two other bags were (occupied) cat carriers. She plopped down, thanked us, and struck up a conversation. Turns out, she had just finished a year-long stint at Google, and was moving back to France. She was…vague, at best, with what she did. She did tell us that, before her initial move to France, she worked on “UI design in Silicon Valley for 1

When we got to Cerbere, though, it was a ghost town. Our train was there, but there were maybe a dozen people at the train station, of which maybe a half-dozen were actually on our train. The rest were ticket salespeople, janitors, and border agents (Who were a little befuddled by my passport. The border agent in Lisbon was running low on ink, so the visa stamp is kinda faint. The poor agent here looked at my passport which seemed to say I magically materialized on a train in his country. He was fine when I pointed the stamp out to him, though).

Anyway, aside from that, the trip was fairly vanilla. I read a book on Provence, Sean read a book on his iPad, and we arrived. Got a nice view of the countryside, too, but it was mostly on or near the border, not before. The Spanish like to build their trains a bit below ground level, so aside from a bit of Figeueres, we didn’t see much. Once we got to Portbou, though, it was gorgeous. We drove through a few marshes, across a river, and spent a hefty amount of time on the coast, which was nice.

Anyway, we arrived in one piece, got checked in, and got dinner. Check another country off my list!

Food in Barcelona

‘Twas good to be back in Barca; I was ready for some good Catalonian food.

Anyway, the first night, we took the hosteliers advice and went to Hugo, a Chilean restaurant that specialized (oddly enough) in Catalonian specialties. I got pork sausage and white beans, and Sean got the sirloin. Spanish food continued its streak of being tasty, but heavily underseasoned. I had to reapply salt 3 times before I could taste any of it. Was quite tasty after that =) Dessert was Crèma Catalonia, a (very large) crème brulee.

Day two, we grabbed some Durum kebab (basically a gyro wrap) between the train station (where we split a muffin) and Sagrada Familia. Quite tasty, but not up to my high durum standards.

For dinner we decided to satisfy some bad vitamin deficiencies. Spanish and Portuguese food are kinda chintzy with the vegetables (you pretty much get a large hunk of protein and some form of potatoes), so Sean and I went to Vegetalia, a vegetarian café in the old city I found last time I was in Barcelona. We split an order of hummus (om nom nom), and I got the mushroom, asparagus, and quinoa risotto, with a brownie for dessert.

Day 3, we went for Italian pretty much around the corner from my old residence in the Carrer de Ribes neighborhood. I got tortellini carbonara, which was tasty, and we apparently impressed the waiter, as we both got a free glass of cava. Dinner that night was a bit different. We tried to find a tapas place that I remembered, but it was closed (Sundays in Spain; plan meals around them!), so we ended up at a place called Mosquito, which specialized in “tapas exoticas.” What does that mean? Dim sum! We got some fried duck, grilled beef, and 3 kinds of dumplings, as well as two red bean paste dumplings for dessert. I also got a schooling from one of the waitresses for ordering my aperitif AFTER my meal (I thought it was a digestif! I’m sorry!). She mimed how it ‘opens up the stomach’ by miming the alien exploding out of her chest.

The next day, we tried to go to my favorite restaurant in Barca (Café de l’Academia), but it was closed for Spain’s equivalent of Memorial Day. ‘Twas quite sad, but couldn’t be helped (closed on the weekend, so it’s not like we could have gone any other time while we were there). So, instead, we went to Tapas Lonje, around the corner, where we split some prawns stewed with mushrooms, skewered chicken, jamon croquettes, and grilled sausage. The prawns were my personal favorite there.

Dinner that night was simple. I was a bit tired of eating out, so, while Sean ran to a Donor Kebab place, I just got some bread, meat, and cheese at the convenience store and made a sammich. Quick, simple, and cheap.

Our last meal in Barcelona was…amusing. I’ve sworn off American chains while I’m over here, as has Sean, as this photo of him chowing down on a Big Macadillo proves. I can’t judge really, though. I ran to a pastry shop across the station and got the largest chocolate filled pastry I’ve ever seen. Seriously. I’ve seen baguettes smaller than this! ‘Twas quite tasty, though!

And now, on to Provence!

Things overheard in hostels

So, one of the benefits of travelling is that you meet some absolutely fascinating characters. Some are wacky, some are witty, some are just clueless. Whatever the reason behind their interestingness, they say some interesting things.

Click through to see them. Some are definitely R-rated, so if you're easily offended, look away!

(Note: Some of these are just amusing quotes from out and about that I had to share. Most are from my hostelmates, though.)

New friends in Barcelona

In Barcelona, we met a few characters. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to grab any photos, but they’re colorful enough without them.

First and foremost, the Australians Ryan and Ren. These guys were covered from head to toe in tattoos, and showed up on their first day wearing nothing but swim trunks and flip flops. Ren was a butcher and Ryan worked for a contracting company as a tile-layer (I think; never asked him, but heard this second-hand from another of our roommates). Nice guys, but were a little…crass. You’ll see why in another post I’m working on called “Things overheard in hostels.”

Next, Lizzie and her little sister (I felt too awkward to ask her name again after the third time of me not remembering). Two girls from Pennsylvania, both of whom were at University of Pittsburgh. Lizzie just finished a degree in nursing and is about to start her job search, and Lizzie is on her last year of her primary education degree. They were funny. Right around the time Sean and I thought, “Hey, they’re getting along pretty well for sisters travelling together,” one of them lost her toothpaste, and the other just adamantly refused to let her borrow any.

Lastly, Chasen from USC, who is between his bachelors and masters in architecture. He introduced himself as “Chasen. It’s like Jason, except you’re running after somebody.” That, and the fact that he apparently bought a pound of spiced French sausage in Nice is about all I know about him. Well, that, and the fact that he can apparently make an awesome sammich.

Toledo

Toledo

Our last day in Castile (the autonomous region of Spain where Madrid is) was spent in Toledo, a small town just South of Madrid. Everyone always talks about how gorgeous it is, so we figured we’d give it a try.

Getting there was pretty easy; we got to the train station 2 hours before we wanted to leave, grabbed a 20 euro round-trip ticket, and sat around drinking coffee til the train left. It was only a half-hour trip, but Sean and I both took cat naps for some reason.

Once we got there, it was about a quarter-mile walk to the city, which was fine and totally doable. The quarter mile walk into the city center, on the other hand, not so much. Toledo’s built on a hill, and the Moors and early Spaniards weren’t fans of escalators apparently, as it was a bit of a climb. Nothing bad, but it was a HOT day, so we were puffing a bit by the time we got to the top.

On the way, though, we took a little time to admire the countryside and mountains surrounding Toledo. Toledo sits across a gorgeous river  from a series of either tall, craggy hills, or short mountains (however you want to view them), and the bridges across the river are pretty enough in their own right.

Anyway, first stop was the Alcazar, a castle that had been used as a military based by everyone from the Moors several centuries ago, to the Republicans fighting the fascists in the 20^th century. Today, it’s a military museum explaining the history of the Spanish army. I wasn’t as interested as I thought I would be (Swords, guns, and cannons: yay! History of the army uniform: not so much). Sean loved it, though, so I let him finish and I did what I do best: get lost.

I LOVE wandering around old cities and seeing what I find, so I did that here. Toledo reminded me a lot of the ciutat vella in Barcelona. Lots of narrow, windy roads which are just as likely to end in a dead end as in a bright, open plaza. The city also had the genius idea of hanging sheets over the narrower roads, meaning it's really easy to duck out of the sun if you're so inclined. Anyway, I wandered for a while, then went to the Church of the Jesuits, for the sole reason that it had a set of towers I could climb to get a view of the city. Not the best panoramic view I’ve seen, but still pretty.

After that, I met up with Sean again, and we wandered to the Synagogue of St. Mary the White, which was having an art show centered around the theme of strengthening bonds between Judaism and Christianity.

We went shopping for souvenirs after that. Toledo is famous for two things: swords and damascene (steel which is engraved with gold or silver, then baked so it turns a shiny black). Sean and I both considered getting swords, then we backed down for two different reasons. Sean because he realized it would forever brand him as a geek. Me because I realized I probably wouldn’t find a genuine piece of Spanish cutlery after the third shop selling Lord of the Rings replicas. I did, however, find a really nice piece of damascene that shows the city of Toledo from across the river.

After that, we stopped at a café where all the desserts were made by nuns. The café wasn’t staffed by them, however, unless habits have been replaced by nose piercings and iPhones with pink cases. We then wandered the city for a bit more, then headed back to the train station, stopping to take a few more photos along the way.

Madrid

Little behind on everything, sorry!

So, Madrid. Sean and I tried to look as untouristy as possible while we were there, since we weren’t sure if the Spanish Occupy protests had quite cleared up. So, I left the camera and camera bag (or, as Katie called it, my man purse) at home so I’d have less to keep track of. As it turns out, we didn’t need to worry; didn’t see a single protestor the whole time we were there. Not a problem, though. I already have photos of everything in Madrid from a few years back. Apologies if the post is a bit picture-free, though.

Anyway, the train from Santiago to Madrid is sloooooooow, so we didn’t get in to Madrid until 9, then didn’t get to the hostel until almost 10. We were very thankful that the sun doesn’t set in Spain until around 10, since it made it much easier to find where we were going. Anyway, we got in, got some dinner, and crashed.

Day 2 marked the day I officially turned old (my 22^nd birthday), and to celebrate Sean and I went to the Prado, Madrid’s massive fine arts gallery (wrote a bit about that earlier) and Retiro Park, which makes Central Park in New York look like a putting green. It’s MASSIVE, and has at least two ponds, which make it a fantastic place to just wander. Anyway, after that we went for a spin around Plaza Mayor, went to dinner, came back to the hostel, met Namisha, and went to bed.

The next day was a bit more abstract, as we went to the Reina Sofia, Madrid’s modern and contemporary art museum (also discussed earlier). Also went to the Royal Palace and saw how the Spanish 1% lived (quite lavishly, if you’re wondering). It was also really cool to see the royal armory, though Sean and I couldn’t figure out how some of those early firearms worked. When a gun’s barrel is as long as you are tall, and as big around as your upper arm, how do you fire it without breaking your shoulder? The Royal Pharmacy was fun to snicker at. They reeeaaallly didn’t understand medicine well back then. One of the medicine jars was just marked “good coffee.” Anyway, that was the night we did tapas at San Miguel, after which we came back and chatted with our fellow hostellers before heading to bed at 2am.

Our last day before Barcelona was a day trip to Toledo, which is its own post (which will actually include pictures!)

Back in Barca!

Oh, sorry. For those of you I’m not Facebook friends with, I’m back in Barca!

We got in on Friday night, and are staying at a hostel that’s just a stone’s throw away from the place I stayed 3 summers ago. Walking around the Arc d’Triomf and Carrer de Ribes neighborhood was an instant hit of nostalgia for me, and seeing Barcelona again is absolutely amazing.

Anyway, saw Sagrada Familia again yesterday (which deserves a whole new post on its own) and wandered down the Ramblas, up the waterfront, and through the Barri Gotic. ‘Twas much fun. Saw Parc Guell and the Magic Fountain today, and tomorrow we’re off to Montjuic and some more explorations of the Ciutat Vella.

New friends in Madrid

So, Sean and I met pretty much no one in Santiago, but made a few new friends in Madrid.

Namisha, our roommate for the past two nights, is from Vancouver, where she’s studying communications. Very bubbly girl that was a lot of fun to talk with, even if she did think Sean and I were in our late twenties (we’re just old souls, I guess =P). Also met Natasha and Ashley, two kinesthesiology (yes I know I misspelled that) students from Ottawa, Shane, a big guy from St. Croix who’s studying in southern Florida, and Raphael, from Brittany in France. We all spent a few hours talking over education, racism, and culture in our respective countries, as well as who was responsible for eating that last slice of cheese.

Someone took a photo of us all last night. If I can get my hands on a copy, I'll post it.

Art in Madrid

It’s funny how tastes in art evolve.

Last time I was here, I hadn’t painted since elementary school, and I *loved* the Prado (a VERY large fine art museum, featuring most of Bosch’s, El Greco’s, Velasquez’s, and Goya’s works), and just kind of ‘meh’d my way through the Reina Sofia (a modern and contemporary art museum).

Now, after two years of fooling around with paint on my own, I was all over the Reina Sofia. Don’t get me wrong, the Prado was still EXCELLENT (particularly since I got to see St. Andrew and St. Francis by El Greco and The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch, which are two of my favorite paintings), but aside from the famous works, I really enjoyed the Reina Sofia more. Techniques and styles since impressionism interest me more now than they used to, I suppose.

I will say that abstract expressionism is still something I enjoy in small doses. Give me one or two to look at, and I’ll analyze them all day long. Put me in a room with 34 works titled “Untitled number #” consisting of a blue dot and black line, and I just get a headache.

Food in Santiago, Madrid, and Toledo

So, I figured I’d cram food from Santiago, Madrid, and Toledo into one post, partly because they fit together nicely and two are fairly short, but mostly I’m ‘cause I’m a wee bit lazy.

Santiago

We only ate three real meals in Santiago. Dinner the first night was the fanciest and, true to form for me, the one I enjoyed the least. I got the roast lamb, which was so-so, but really dry and waaaay too much. Thought that was funny, as most meat in Spain moo’s (or baa’s or bleats) when you cut into it. Dessert (chestnuts cooked in chocolate with whipped cream) was excellent, though.

Lunch the next day was HYSTERICAL. The restaurant/bar we stopped at was managed, waited, bused, and cooked for by one Spanish man who didn’t speak a lick of English and didn’t have the time (or patience) to repeat himself. I asked him to repeat the options for the first plate, and he just patted me on the shoulder and said (in Spanish), “I bring you the soup. It’s good.” Then scurried off. He did the same thing for the second plate (grilled ham). Funniest part was later. I understand Spanish quite well when I’m not on the spot (i.e. it’s not being spoken to me), so when the table of tourists next to us was ordering, I heard him say, “I’ll bring you the ham. It’s good! I just ordered it for them (points at us) too!” Dessert was Santiago tart, which is like a slightly lemony, slightly nutty pound cake covered in powdered sugar.

Dinner that night was tasty, if somewhat hard to find. It turns out the ‘third holiest city on Earth’ kinda shuts down on Sundays, so we had trouble finding an open restaurant. We ended up just eating at the café in our B&B. Sean and I split an order of croquettes (one of my favorite things ever, by the way), and I got an order of morcello, Spanish sausage made from blood and rice).

Lunch at the train station the next day was basic, though special, ‘cause it was my first Iberian ham of the trip. I kinda had an addiction to that stuff last time I was in Spain.

Madrid

Dinner the first night in Madrid was…interesting. Asked our hostelier for a rec (which had worked PHENOMENALLY up til then) and he sent us to a strip of Indian restaurants nearby. Now, I love Indian food, but the Spanish don’t really like spices and ABHOR spiciness (‘spicy sauce’ in Spain means ‘tangy’ to someone from the States). You can’t really do Indian food that way. The curry was ‘meh’, not bad, but way too sweet. The wine also tasted like it was equal parts bad white wine and water.

Lunch the next two days was just bocadillos (sandwiches on crusty baguettes) at cafés en route to the art museums. Tasty, but nothing special. The dinners were both great, though. For my birthday, we went to an Asturian restaurant called Casa Lustra, that I’m convinced was trying to kill me. Got the Menu de la Casa, which was a pot of Asturian stew (chorizo sausage, pork fat, beans, and kale), grilled salmon, a half-bottle of wine, and a Asturian pastry (whose name I didn’t pick up). Quite tasty. Especially since Sean bought it for me =D

Next day was less tasty but more fun. We went to the Market de San Miguel and wandered around grabbing up tapas. Was a bit pricier than going to a restaurant, but it was a lot of fun just wandering around picking stuff that looked tasty. I got seafood paella (meh; he scooped some up and microwaved it), venison sausage (meh; microved again), tinto de verano (dry red wine mixed with lemon soda on ice; sounds weird, but is really tasty), a salmon and crab salad pintxo (tapa on toast; not bad), a pistachio cookie (om nom nom), and lemon gelato with chocolate chips (=D).

Toledo, we pretty much skipped food for whatever reason. Only thing we had to eat was some espresso and pastries at a bakery (which I think had its baked goods supplied by nuns in a convent), where Sean got a waffle with ice cream and I got a mazapan (no, not marzipan) cake. When we got back, we were kinda starving, so we went to a tapas bar called Lateral that the front desk recommended. Awful waiters (the guy said it was over an hour wait outside, without mentioning that the inside of the restaurant was empty), but great food. We got jamon croquettes, patatas bravas, stuffed peppers, and a pintxo that was essentially tuna salad on toast, except it was made with bonito instead of tuna, and had grilled asparagus on top. For dessert, I got “crepes castellanos con dulce de leche,” which is a fancy way of saying mini pancakes topped with caramel and whipped cream.

Don't know what my last meal in Madrid will be, but sammiches at the train station are a strong contender.

Things we don't have in the States, but should

Jamon Iberico

Spanish ham is NOTHING like ham in the States. Ham in the states is sugared, salted, and cooked, but Jamon is instead salted and cured for several months. As a result, all the water gets drawn out, and you get ham that just tastes hammier. It’s dry, oily, and a little chewy (and hard to eat in a sandwich sometimes), but it is tasty stuff. This prosciutto, but less salty and more hammy.

Jamon flavored chips

To paraphrase my friend Cristy: It’s fun to watch people when they taste these for the first time. They’re faces go from ‘Ewww, it tastes like ham,’ to ‘Hey, ham!’

Café bombon

2-1 espresso and condensed milk. It’s like a really sweet and really creamy cappuccino without the foam.

Lemon Fanta

WHY DON’T WE HAVE THIS STUFF?

It's like lemon-flavored San Pellegrino, except about twice as sweet.

Porto's done!

Hi!

So, all my stuff from Porto is up. All photos uploaded (finally) to flickr, and no more new blog posts. Link to the album is here.

Might have one more food-related post for Santiago, but I still need to get the photos from there up too.

Like an old western

You know a restaurant is going to be good when you walk in, guidebook in hand, and all conversation stops as a group of locals look you up and down with a "How the hell did you get in here?" look on their face.

Anyway, Casa Lustra was a tasty place for a birthday dinner. Thanks Sean for picking up the tab!

Santiago de Compostela

Hi all!

As of writing this, we’re just leaving Santiago de Compostela for Madrid via train.

By far, Santiago was our slowest city so far, and was probably the least touristy place we’ll be visiting, once you got about two blocks away from the Cathedral. It was very nice, but a HUGE change of pace from Lisbon and Porto, both of which had a lot of young people (and a lot of young travelers) and the restaurants, cafés, and energy that tend to follow them.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. First off, quick crash course on Santiago:

Santiago is Spanish and Galician for “Saint James,” and “Compostela” is the old Galician for essentially “resting place.” So, Santiago de Compostela is basically “St. James’ burial place.” So named because it is, in fact, where St. James is buried. It’s considered the third holiest city on earth, after Rome and Jerusalem, and every year thousands of pilgrims hike the Camino de Santiago (“Way/Walk of St. James”) from other Spanish cities to see his tomb. People walk from as far as France, but a popular starting point for foreigners is from Ourense, which is about 100 miles outside of Santiago.

St. James spent a large portion of his life preaching to the Gauls in the Iberian peninsula, so after he was martyred by Herod in Jerusalem, his followers brought his remains back to what is now Galicia. The history behind the bones is long and complicated, with them being lost and found a few times before they were finally properly entombed where they are today.

Now, Santiago de Compostela is the third largest cathedral in the world, behind St. Peter’s in the Vatican and the Duomo in Florence. It really is massive in a way that is hard to capture in photos. Walking past while looking up at its towers, you don’t even really notice the parallax that you’d expect, because they’re just so far away.

Inside, the cathedral is gorgeous. Laid out in a typical cross shape, the area behind the altar is full of engraved and gilded carvings and statues. Those statues of cherubs, by the way, are about 3-4 times as big as I am, at least. The cathedral is also famous for its enormous censer, which during large services they fill with about 40 lbs. of charcoal and incense. St. James tomb itself is actually fairly understated, which I liked. To get to it, you just walk down a set of stone steps just behind the altar, and there’s a little unadorned room with a kneeler in it, facing a set of iron bars. On the other side, through a little hall is where St. James bones are kept in a silver reliquary, which is the only real show of wealth in the room, aside from the flowers in front of it. It was very solemn, which I liked. I lit a candle and made a donation for my Nana at St. James’ tomb.

The rest of the city is fairly small and sleepy (once you get away from the restaurants and jewelry stores catering to pilgrims and tourists near the cathedral). It’s also funny to say, but Santiago is FULL of older people. There aren’t many people in their 20s or 30s there. Most of the pilgrims, for whatever reason, are in their 40s and 50s. There were even a few old codgers that were my grandparents’ age.

Well…okay, I should say that Santiago is NORMALLY small and sleepy and full of codgers and whatnot. Apparently we got there right at the end of some big mountain bike race that culminated in a rap concert on our first night. All those folks were gone by the next day, so it made for a rather amusing difference.

Not that we were really out and about enough to notice, though. Sean and I took a little vacation from our vacation and pretty much spent the day in our room working on our computer tans. We still weren’t caught up from the jet lag, and since Santiago doesn’t have much aside from the cathedral, we just kinda bummed about for a day and a night.

Anyway, our first night, we got in around 6, dropped our stuff, and went straight to the cathedral, since we weren’t sure if it would be open to the public on a Sunday. Turns out it was, but better safe than sorry. Anyway, we got back, I posted a few new posts, we went to dinner at a Galician restaurant, and went to bed.

The next day, we went to the train station to book our tickets to Madrid, then got lunch at a TINY little Spanish bar that was waited, bused, and cooked for by one guy. The food was forgettable, but the dude serving us was hilarious. Didn’t speak a word of English, and didn’t have the patience to speak Spanish slowly, so he kept ordering for us (and for everyone else in the restaurant too).

After that, we came back and crashed ‘til dinner, and even then, we just went to the café in our bed and breakfast. In our defense, that was pretty much our only option, since ‘the third holiest city on earth’ kinda shuts down on Sunday. Who’d a thunk it?

Anyway, we got up this morning and caught the train. A nice quiet stopover before the whirlwind that Madrid and Barcelona are sure to be =)

Santiago hostel

Since Santiago’s not exactly a hub for college-age tourists, rooming there (at least the kind we’re staying in) is very cheap. So, Sean and I sprang for a bed and breakfast instead. It was only about 5 euro extra per night, but it meant we got a private room to ourselves, with our own bathroom. We had a floor-to-ceiling window which we could open and look out on the street below. The walls were also cool; they were made of stone and mortar, and for whatever reason, people had stacked euro pennies in nooks and crannies in the mortar. Couldn’t figure out why they did it, but made me smile nonetheless =)

Oh, and it also had a restaurant/café downstairs (the ‘breakfast’ in ‘bed and breakfast’), which was quite tasty, and saved our butts on Sunday. The waiters didn’t speak a word of English aside from the numbers on the menu, but we still managed to get by.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a quiet, small place in Santiago, Casa Felisa definitely gets a thumbs-up. It’s easy walking to the bus and train stations, and is just down the street from the cathedral square.

Porto hostel

In Porto, we stayed at the Yes! Porto Hostel across the street from Igreja dos Clerigos, just down the street from Sao Bento train station. Excellent location, as it’s walking distance from some cool sites, good food, and the train station, and is a 5 euro cab ride from the bus station (or a thirty minute walk, which we were happy to pay 2.50 euro apiece to not have to do with our luggage).

It’s also a nice place to stay. Clean rooms, free wifi, huge lockers, comfy beds, free breakfast, and the same 10-euro, 3-course dinner offer our hostel in Lisbon had.

Chatted with a few folks whenever I was in the common area, but didn’t make any friends like I did with Anita and Leanne in Lisbon. I did meet a few interesting folks, though. Chief in my mind is a Stephanie, who was born in Montreal, raised in Alabama, then moved back to Montreal for university. She reminded me of my sister a bit; she’s studying fine arts and French in Montreal, and is in France for the spring taking French classes. Also met Zach, who was taking the scenic route to Barcelona, where he’s going to be studying economics for the summer.

The staff were also friendly, and were hysterical to watch. Two of them were shamelessly flirting and randomly dancing with each other for the entire stay, and another one was playing a drinking game with some of the guests when we left for dinner one night.

Basically, I’d definitely recommend it to folks looking at going to Porto, UNLESS you’re looking for someplace quiet to stay. It’s very much a party hostel, and the lobby and kitchen basically become a dance club at night. That was a lot of fun to watch, but if you have trouble sleeping with noise, it might be a bit annoying at night.

Photos

Small hiccup in uploading photos last night, so only like a quarter of them made it up. The rest of the Porto photos should be up soon (uploading now).

Oh, and I'm sorting through the ones from Santiago too right now.

EDIT: ...okay, apparently Spanish hostels just don't like to spring for the good wifi, as it's taking freaking forever to just upload one or two photos. So, addendum: the photos MIGHT be up soon.

Port wine

I’m a bit of a wine and spirits buff, so I really liked the port tour, and had a lot of fun learning about how it’s made. So, for those interested, here’s a crash course on port in 400 words or less. And if you're not interested, then you're still reading it anyway.

If you’ve never had it, port is a strong, sweet wine you normally drink a small glass of right before or right after a big meal. It’s made like any other wine, except the fermentation is stopped early. Aguardiente (basically unaged brandy) is added to the wine, which kills the yeast and raises the alcohol percentage to 20%. The extra sweetness in port is caused by killing off the yeast before they get a chance to eat all the sugar in the wine and convert it to alcohol.

That’s for all five kinds of port. The differences come from what happens next.

·         Tawny port is put into small oak barrels to age. Since the barrels are small, the port has more contact with the wood and air, making it taste sweeter, pick up honey and vanilla flavors from the wood, and turn dark and slightly clear from exposure to the air. Tawny port is red-brown.

·         Ruby port is put into large barrels to age (as in room-sized instead of man-sized). Since it has less exposure to air and wood, it tastes and looks more like the original wine, and is less sweet. Ruby port is dark red-violet.

·         Vintage port is made from very good ruby port from a very good year; they only make a vintage port a few times every decade. They let it age for just a few years, then bottle it without filtering the sediment and yeast out. This lets it still change in the bottle, whereas ruby and tawny ports (which are filtered before bottling) stop changing as soon as they’re put in glass. As such, vintages are the only ones worth aging after you buy them.

·         Late-bottled vintage port is essentially a really good ruby port. It was going to be a vintage, but the blender decided it wasn’t quite up to snuff when he tasted it, and it was filtered and bottled like any other ruby.

·         White port is made from white wine, and is aged very briefly before being bottled. It’s normally viewed as not quite as good as red port.

Food in Porto

Salmon steaks

I know I touched on food in previous posts, but figured I’d make one dedicated to just the tastiness in Porto. In a nutshell, the food in Porto was excellent. Didn’t have a meal that I didn’t like, and I had a ton of great seafood. 

Day 1, we just grabbed  pastry and coffee near our hostel for lunch (we had a late train, so we didn’t get in until a bit too late for lunch). I had a flaky pastry stuffed with custard and coated with chocolate. Quite tasty, and quite cheap too.

For dinner, we walked down to a restaurant we had passed on the way from the train station (didn’t catch the name), which had some very tasty fish. I got a “grilled” salmon steak, which was more sautéed that grilled, but very tasty.

Francesinha

Day 2, we had a MASSIVE sandwich that would put the Coronary Bypass at the Vortex to shame. After our tour ended, Sean and I got a Francesinha at Café Santiago. The Francesinha is two pieces of bread, a grilled steak, two slices of ham (like from a ham at Thanksgiving, not deli ham), and two hunks apiece of two kinds of sausage. Dip it in the secret sauce, melt four slices of cheese on top, and serve with French Fries. We weren’t hungry for a loooong while after that.

Dinner rolled around eventually, and Sean and I found a place on the waterfront. I got something our tour guide had recommended, but is guaranteed to gross out my Aunt Ivery: tripe and bean stew. Even our waiter made a face when I got it, but it was good! It was like very mild red beans and rice from New Orleans.

Day 3, we built up a bit of an appetite hiking to the port cellar (and, you know, drinking port), so we grabbed lunch across the river in Gaia. I got the grilled sea bass (which was tasty, but a little too bony, so it wasn’t quite my cup of tea), and Sean got the grilled chicken. Oddly enough, the potatoes were the best part; a little vinegar and olive oil can make plain boiled potatoes quite tasty. We also stopped at a café on the way back for coffee and a pastry (but mostly to escape the rain). After that, we met up with Anita, and eventually ended back up at the waterfront, where we split some sangria, and I got a dessert made with ice cream and espresso.

Fried peppers, olives, wine and fried sardines

Anyway, dinner that night easily took first prize for best meal so far in Europe. We got a recommendation for A Casa dos Brenlhas from our hostel, and figured we’d give it a shot. I mentioned this place in an earlier post (which they apparently saw and liked on their FB page. Hi guys!), but I’ll go a bit more into detail here.

Anyway, Sean, Anita, and me all split a carafe of wine (it evolved into a carafe and a half, but who’s counting?). We all got a small plate and a big plate, and figured we’d share everything. For small plates, we got some small fried sardines (which were MUCH better than the large ones in Lisbon), fried peppers (not spicy, but quite tasty), and grilled chorizo (my personal favorite; Sean laughed when I lunged for the last bite).

Tasty, tasty stuff

These were all excellent, and we could have made an easy meal out of those, but we still managed to save room for the main course. I got the bread stew with seafood (clams and shrimp) which was excellent, though I could easily have split that alone with someone and been stuffed. Sean and Anita both got the grilled beef and fries, and polished their plates, if I remember correctly (and Anita tried to help me polish mine, too!).

After that, the extra half-carafe of wine made an appearance, and we got dessert. Sean and I got a custard tart of some kind (think flan, but cut from a cake) and Anita got a slice of very tasty-looking ice cream cake. Somehow, Anita sweet-talked a bit of mine out of me. I’m a sucker for a pretty smile, what can I say?

After that, we finished the meal off with a glass of port, and paid the (astonishingly low) check. Total damage for dinner, dessert, and drinks was 33 euro, which was a steal! I’ve seen individual meals in the States go for that much, wine and dessert not included! For how great the food was, I’d say that’s definitely worth the cost! Definitely give Brenlhas a try if you’re ever in Porto!

Lisbon's done!

Hi all.

Nothing new coming from Lisbon. The Sintra photos are uploaded, and I'm out of things to say about it, I think. Shocking, I know.

Have a few other things to blog about in Porto, and need to upload all the photos, but that'll have to wait til tomorrow. It's almost 2am here, and I'm going to pass out.

Now, on to Spain!

Porto day 3

Day three in Porto started off with a tour of a port cellar. We had picked one out (Ramos Pinto), but when we checked our decision with the hostel they laughed and said no. Apparently, they had a deal with Graham’s Port that people staying at our hostel got a free tour of the facilities. It was a looooong hike up to their facility; we had to get to the river, cross a rather narrow bridge (not actually that narrow, just feels like it when cars are breezing past you 2 feet away), head down river almost until the mouth, then up a hill (again, why don’t they like sidewalks in Europe?). Totally worth the hike, though.

Tasty port

We got a smart guide who Sean and I kinda bombarded him with questions (…okay, *I* kinda bombarded him with questions). Near the end of the tour he said, “It seems like we have some…curious people on the tour, so let me explain a bit more about how this actually works,” and gave a rather in-depth discussion of how the economics and aging of vintage port actually work. Anyway, after that, we had a tasting (which we were kind of surprised at, seeing as we didn’t pay a dime to get in), and got to see how different ages and types of port differed.

After the tour, Sean and I grabbed lunch and headed back to the hostel for a bit to wait for Anita. She got in, and we headed to the Crystal Palace, which wasn’t so much ‘crystal’ as ‘concrete,’ and wasn’t so much ‘palace’ as ‘old, empty stadium.’ It was probably gorgeous when the copper dome wasn’t tarnished and green and all the windows weren’t scummed up, but it was kinda underwhelming. The gardens were nice, though, and we saw a random flock of peacocks just wandering around.

Students singing

Anyway, it had been drizzling most of the day, and was starting to pick up, so we grabbed a table at a snack bar near the river and watched it rain for a bit. There was a group of University of Porto students singing nearby (capes and all), which was fun to watch. Especially when some girls started watching. Guys are the same world over: put a pretty girl nearby, and the antics and wild dancing start. Best we could figure, they go singing every Friday, then take whatever money they make and go drinking.

After that, we went for dinner, which was easily the best meal I’ve had so far. We went to a little restaurant called Brehnlas (maybe Brenlhas or Brelnahs; can’t remember where the ‘l’ and ‘h’ go). Tiny, tiny little place, but the food was excellent. I’ll detail what we ate later, but suffice it to say we ate like KINGS, and it was dirt cheap. I’m talking olives, three small plates, three ENORMOUS individual meals, wine, three desserts, and port to finish, and it cost 33 euro. Total. Not each. Total.

The restaurant staff was AWESOME, too. Our waiter came up and asked us for a photo, which confused us, til we realized we had been the only non-Portuguese people in the restaurant the entire night. Having a set of American and Australian tourists in the restaurant was probably a novelty. His daughter was adorable, and even posed for a photo with us. I’ll see if I can’t get a copy of that photo.

Anyway, after that, it was close to 1 a.m., so we just walked Anita to a cab stand, hugged goodbye, and called it a night. 

Porto day 1 and 2

So!

We just left Porto (am writing this on the bus to Santiago), which was just voted the best place in the EU to visit by Hostel World, and I can definitely see why. Lisbon was fantastic, but we pretty much stated in the historic district there, which has kinda become wall-to-wall tourists. Porto, on the other hand, seems like a real city. There’s actual industry there, there’s waaaay more locals than tourists, the food’s great, and things are cheap. Not to mention that it’s the only place in the world that produces port wine, which I’ve kinda acquired a taste for in Portugal.

Our tour guide, on the right

Anyway, our first two days were basically a crash course on the city. We got in fairly late in the afternoon, so our first night, we pretty much just got dinner and crashed. The next day, our hostel had a walking tour of the city from 10:30 to 1:30, that covered most of the major landmarks and the waterfront. The city is on the Duoro river, which helped it gain its place as the port that launched the age of exploration and helped cement Portugal’s shipping empire. Our guide (who had just gotten back from 6 years as a missionary in Angola) gave us a quick course on the history of Portugal. We also learned that despite being known for port (the drink is named after the city, after all), port isn’t actually made in Porto; it’s made in Gaia, which is the city on the south bank of the Duoro (Porto is only on the north bank).

Cafe Majestic

After the tour ended, Sean and I headed down the main commercial street in the city and looked in a few shops. After that, we grabbed some coffee in Café Majestic, an art deco café that’s got a gorgeous wood, gold, and mirrored interior. J.K. Rowling apparently used to sit there and write when she lived in Porto (around when she was starting the Sorceror’s Stone). Oh, and speaking of Harry Potter, Rowling was also inspired by the student uniforms in the city (all-black with a black cape over one shoulder; this was supposed to hide which students came from money and which ones didn’t) for the Hogwarts uniforms and the Lello bookstore, who’s interior inspired a lot of the shops in Diagon Alley. Sean said it looked a lot like the Weasley’s joke shop, which I can definitely see.

The Duoro at night

After that, we climbed the Torre dos Clerigos, a 75 meter tall stone tower on a church that looks over most of Porto. We were going to meet Anita (one of the Australian girls we met in Lisbon) for dinner, but she missed the last train out of Lisbon (apparently due to a too-nice lunch with too many drinks on the beach). We just decided to meet up the next day. So, Sean and I grabbed dinner by ourselves on the Duoro. The food was good, the location was nice, and the waiters were interesting. One of them made a face when I ordered my meal (more on why in another post ;D) and the other spoke very good English (he had been living in London for a few years). We talked to him about, oddly enough, cars. We told him that in the states, Mercedes was a definite luxury brand. He thought that was hysterical, since in Portugal, they’re just a work-horse car. All the taxis are Mercedes, and Mercedes trucks are pretty much what make deliveries and pick up the trash. He laughed and said the same is true for Portuguese folks; a Camaro or Dodge Charger might only run you 20-30K in the states, but in Europe, only the really rich drive them, as they’re likely to run you 100-150K.

Anyway, after that, we headed back to the hostel, I blogged and uploaded photos, and Sean talked and played games with his family on his iPhone.

End day 2!

Fado in Lisbon

A Tasco do Chico Fado club

My hostel in Lisbon did Fado (a type of music unique to Lisbon that is kind of similar to the Blues) tours twice a week, one of which lined up with our second night in Lisbon. Seeing as we pretty much slept all day, we had plenty of energy that night, so we figured why not?

Anyway, the tour went to a strip of Fado clubs in Barrio Alto, and the one they took us to there was cool (also about as big as a postage stamp). They pretty much have an open mic there, but since they didn’t have anyone who wanted to get up, the doorman got up and sang. He didn’t have a voice to lure birds out of the trees, but that just kinda added a bit of salty-old-dude roughness to it. 

Oh, and the drinks were dirt cheap, too. I gave the guy getting drinks for our table a 5 euro note, and he came back with a pint of beer and 3 euros in change. The place across from us was making half-liter mojitos and caipirinhas for 5 euros. I passed on those. It seemed the wisest decision.

Lisbon hostel

Living Lounge Hostel common area

Quick pitch for our hostel: the folks that run the Living Lisbon and Living Lounge hostels are PHENOMENAL. The hostel is clean, comfy, and friendly, and has a lot of quirky artsy touches about it (like the fact that one of the chairs in the common room is an old barber’s chair, and that each bedroom has a custom mural painted on the walls).

The folks there also had great recommendations for places to eat, and were absolutely right that we HAD to go to Sintra with them. One of the best days I’ve had in a while.

So, anyway, many thanks to Zed, Patso, and Sofia for a great place to stay and a lot of great advice on Lisbon!

Food in Lisbon

So, it’s a little late now, but figured I’d put up the rest of what I ate in Lisbon.

I forgot to mention that our hostel did a free breakfast every morning, so Sean and I just ate there mostly. Typically, it was just bread, jam, nutella, and cornflakes, though they had crepes too about every other day. I’ll say this though: I’m looking forward to a glass of COLD milk in the states; they prefer room-temp, ultra-pasteurized milk in Portugal for some reason.

Grilled sardines. Tasty, yet pokey. Dem bones hurt.

Our second day, we stopped for lunch while walking downhill from the castle. Saw a place that had a 10 euro meal of the day, and figured why not. We both got a glass of wine and some fava bean soup, then we got a choice between fish or meat. I continued my trend of really only eating seafood in Portugal, and got the fish option, which was grilled sardines and potatoes. They tasted good, but were really boney and hard to eat. Dessert was just a fruit cup.

Grilled cod and potatoes

Anyway, after that, we came back and passed out, then left for dinner around 9 for a place whose name I’ve already forgotten, though it was quite tasty. I got the grilled cod and potatoes, and Sean got the filet (which was only 2 euros more).

Cod’s actually really big in Portugal and is normally the most expensive (or one of the most expensive) options on the menu, as much as twice as expensive as the salmon or swordfish. It’s funny that it’s such a huge part of the diet here, because they don’t even grow in Portuguese waters. They fly it in from Norway as salt cod and have to rehydrate it for 2 days.

Cod stew

The next day was the trip to Sintra, where for lunch we had a lot of bread, cheese, sausage, and jam for appetizers, then some cod, zucchini, and bread stew made by Sofia, which was far and away the best meal I had in Lisbon and the second best in Portugal (more on the best once I get to writing about Porto). On the way back, we stopped in Belem to get a pastel de Belem, an egg custard tart that’s kind of THE secret recipe of Portugal. No one knows what’s in it, they just make good guesses. That night, we all ate at the hostel, where we got some soup, home-fried chicken, olives, and mango sorbet with berries.

Lunch the next day was pretty basic, since we were leaving around lunchtime: just a pepsi and a ham and cheese sandwich at the train station while we waited to go to Porto.

Sintra

I mentioned earlier that I went on a tour with a group from my hostel to a place called Sintra. Basically, Sintra is a small town about 15 miles outside of Lisbon that has a LOT of cool landmarks, including a 19th century palace, a Moorish castle, and a really...odd mansion.

Sofia

Anyway, it was Sean, me, six girls, and Sofia, our guide, who is one of those larger-than-life characters you meet every now and then. She spent several years as an executive producer in Portugal, and when her mom died a few years back, joined up with a few Portuguese artists who had put together Living Lisbon and Living Lounge hostels. Bit of a change, no? I spent most of the trip talking to two girls from Australia: Anita (a lawyer) and Leanne (who works for KPMG). They rather enjoyed making fun of me whenever I said "y'all."

We skipped the castle, but got a great view of it from above from the palace (which is farther up the moutain Sintra is built on/around). The palace is kind of an amalgamation of every different architectural style under the sun, and was made by a rich nobleman to give to his wife.  Twas okay, but I really loved the views. It was a clear day, so we could see all the way to Lisbon.

Next, we went into the town of Sintra, where we at some phenomenal pastries (one with cinnamon and goat cheese and another with almost paste) and went to the most magical place is Portugal. This little shop had every kind of good food and drink you can imagine: port wine, bitter almond liquer, soft sheep cheese, jams made of fruits and Port, mead, and vinegar made from fruit around Sintra. I see many a trip to their website ^_^ Oh! And we also went to a shop that makes the type of ceramic tiles you see all over Lisbon. Wanted to get one or two, but didn't think they'd survive the next two months in my suitcase.

Monserrate park

We went from there to Quinta de Regaleira, a mansion and grounds that a Brazilian man had built to satisfy his...eccentricities. It was amazingly cool, and really weird. The mansion was okay, though it did have a lot of weird rooms, like a library with mirrors in the floor, so it looked like the center of the room was just floating on thin air. The grounds though were AMAZING. For whatever reason, he dug a series of tunnels throughout the grounds, that connect to a small labyrinth, a few wells with spiral staircases up to ground level, and a pond that you have to cross through a series of stepping stones. 'Twas weird and awesome. Sean wants to set a horror movie or five here. I think the phrase "What was he smoking and where can I get some?" was used. The Wikipedia article is interesting.

Anyway, we hopped in the car afterwards and drove to Monserrate park, where we ate some EXCELLENT homecooked Portuguese food that Sofia made, including cod stew. Sofia also made sure we polished off 4 bottles of Vinho Verde (very young, very dry, very tart Portuguese white wine) and a bottle of bitter almond liqueur between the 8 of us, so we were all a bit dozy. It was a most excellent picnic =)

Sofia crammed us all in the van after that and drove us to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe. We got there right before sunset, so the lighting was awesome. Got some excellent shots of the rocks, cliffs, and flowers here.

Cabo da Roca

After that, Sofia and the girls started a plot to get to the beach right as the surfers were getting in for the day and stripping off their wet suits. There was something rather....predatory about this. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for Sean and me), the surfers were modest enough not to strip down entirely in public.

After this, we drove through Cascais (a fishing village turned resort for rich British families) and back to Lisbon, with a stop in Belem to get a pasteis de Belem (a Portuguese custard tart). We got back, crashed at Living Lisbon (my hostel's partner hostel) and had some fried chicken, soup, and mango custard cooked by Antonio. Sean and I then passed around a bottle of tawny port we'd gotten at the store in Sintra, then went home and crashed for the night and left for Porto in the morning.

Lisbon photos are up!

Note to future self, check upload speed of hostel's WiFi before promising to upload ALL your photos.

The rest of my photos from Lisbon proper are up, but those 30 pics took about 2 hours to upload. Sintra will be up later, probably in chunks.

In the meantime, I'm off on a walking tour of Porto that our hostel gives. Hopefully will get some more cool photos that I won't be able to upload =)

Lisbon

Hi all!

Sorry, haven't forgotten about the blog; the last three days have just been a wee bit hectic.

So! Quick summary, then I'll post more detailed entries later.

Monday, Sean and I wandered around Lisbon's landmarks for a while, grabbed lunch, and took unintentional five-hour naps. Yep. Apparently we weren't quite over the jet lag just yet. Anyway, before we passed out, we saw the convent at Carmo, which was destroyed in the 1755 earthquake that pretty much defined the historic area of Lisbon. Then, we went to the Se, Lisbon's cathedral, where we saw a rather adorable musical interlude: a group of Portuguese elementary school students singing "I've got the Joy Joy Joy Joy" in the cathedral. In English, for some reason.

Anyway, after all that church, we needed some good ol' fashioned violence, so we hiked (read: climbed) up to the Castelo de Sao Jorge, which was an interesting enough castle, but was definitely worth it for the views of the city. There's also apparently a family of peacocks that live up there.

Anyway, we came back and pretty much crashed right after that, then we went out for dinner at Beleal (excellent Portuguese food, no tourists in sight), came back, and went out to a Fado club with some folks from the hostel.

On Tuesday, we took a tour our hostel offered to Sintra, a small town outside of Lisbon. That's a wee bit too much to summarize here, so I'll save that for it's own post. The photo of me up above is from this trip, though, and it was a most excellent way to spend the day.

Anyway, today was a travel day. We took the three-hour train ride from Lisbon to Porto, where we're now staying at the Yes! Porto Hostel. Fairly uneventful--though rather stressful--trip. Haven't done much train travel in Europe, so I still get antsy, worried that I didn't get the ticket validated correctly or that I'm going to hop off at the wrong stop.

Anyway!

Photos are on their way. I'll have some (if not most) of them up by tonight. I'll try to post the Sintra summary as well.

Ciao!

Lisbon Day 1

Day one complete.

We got in around 9am, but couldn't check in to the hostel til 2pm. So, we dropped our stuff, grabbed some of the hostel's free breakfast (where Sean got a crash-course in Portuguese via the back of the orange juice box) and went a-wandering.

We went to the waterfront area, which had a gorgeous plaza, but was otherwise kinda meh. The cathedral was having Mass, so we didn't go in. We stopped and got some coffee and pastries (posted a pic just a minute ago) as a pick-me-up, since we were both kinda fading fast.

Anyway, we wandered through the Rossio (a big plaza with some gorgeous buildings and fountains), down some of the roads in the Baixa (one of the major tourist neighborhoods), and up and down the Avenida da Liberdade (think the a cross between the Ramblas in Barcelona and the Champs Elysees in Paris). There was a local food, wine, and music festival going on in the Rossio, and I bought a small bottle of ginginha, a sour cherry liqueur they make in Lisbon. I'll try it tomorrow and post what it's like.

Anyway, after that, we came back, and CRASHED. Sean and I both slept for at least an hour and a half. I managed to grab some shuteye on the plane, but he didn't, so he in particular needed that. But anyway, after that, we wandered to Praca do Duque for dinner, and ate at the Solar do Duque. Had a gorgeous view of the city, and good food. We sat next to two interesting groups. First was a pair of travel agents who gave us some advice on restaurants and trains, and second was a group of Portuguese guys our age who we swapped music advice with.

Anyway, we meandered back, planned out the next two days, and are crashing again. So, g'night!